International expansion is exciting for small and mid-sized businesses— new customers, new markets, and higher revenues. But there’s a hidden cost: cross-border payments.
If you pick the wrong payment provider, you may encounter delays, hidden fees, foreign exchange risk, regulatory hurdles, poor customer experience, and complex reconciliation.
This guide walks you through the key criteria for selecting a payment provider for international payments.
Growing pains of small business growth
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have tighter margins, fewer financial buffers, less levered internal finance teams, and less tolerance for surprises.
Poor foreign exchange (FX) execution can cause major headaches for business owners as they hustle to maintain favorable rates and comply with regulations. Meanwhile, slow payments reconciliations, hidden fees, and a lack of transparency hinder the business’s growth plans, each in its own way.
The right payment provider can help SMBs expand overseas by reducing friction, improving efficiency, and providing strategic insights.
How to choose a payment provider: Top questions to ask
Here are the key considerations for SMBs selecting a cross-border payment provider:
| Criteria | Questions and what to look for | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage and currency reach | How many currencies? In how many countries/territories? What local corridors (i.e., USD→Mexican peso, EUR→NOK, JPY→INR, etc.)? Does the provider maintain local bank accounts or “holding balances”? | More coverage means fewer workarounds, lower FX and intermediary bank costs, and faster settlement. |
| Speed and settlement times | Does the payments provider offer same-day, T+1, or local-rail payments? What are the delays from intermediary banks or foreign clearing systems? | Faster settlement improves cash flow and supplier/vendor satisfaction. Delays cost money and hurt credibility. Convera offers same-day settlement in many corridors. |
| FX rates, transparency, and fees | What FX spread is used? Are rates locked or variable? What total fees will show up (signup fees, monthly fees, wire fees, intermediary bank fees, lift fees, OUR/BEN/SHA charges)? | Poor FX execution or hidden fees can erode margins. Transparency enables better financial planning. Convera provides real-time competitive FX rates, transparent fees, and no sign-up or monthly fees. |
| Compliance, regulation, security, and risk management | What regulatory licenses does the provider hold? How do they handle know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, and local compliance in countries where you’ll transact? What fraud protection and monitoring tools do they offer? How do they ensure payment formatting to reduce rejections? | Global payments cross many legal and regulatory domains, and noncompliance can lead to delays, frozen funds, or even legal exposure. Convera holds many regulatory licenses, screens transactions, validates formatting, and provides fraud prevention. |
| Integration and usability | How easy is the provider’s platform to use? Does it support APIs or batch-file uploads? Can it easily integrate with your existing or future ERP, accounting, invoicing, and treasury systems? Is there dashboarding, tracking, and alerts? | This is critical for operational efficiency; reducing manual work reduces cost and human error. Convera offers secure batch file upload, API integration, dashboards, and tracking. |
| Risk mitigation and FX hedging options | Does the payments provider allow you to lock in favorable FX deals with forward contracts and options, or help manage currency exposure? Do they allow multi-currency holding balances so you can delay conversion? | Volatile FX can mean big swings in cost; risk management features let you stabilize for budgeting. Convera offers multi-currency holding accounts and hedging tools. |
| Transparency and reporting | Does the global payments provider offer full visibility into fee breakdowns, FX marks, and intermediary bank deductions? What kind of statements and audit trails do they show? How easy is reconciliation? | Poor reporting can create accounting headaches, disputes, and surprise costs. Convera offers small business solutions for improving cash flow. |
| Scalability and flexibility | As volumes grow, will fees scale well? Are there volume discounts? Can the provider handle bulk payments, payroll, and supplier payments efficiently? Can they effortlessly adapt to new markets and regulatory changes? | What works when you’re doing a handful of payments may break as you scale and expand globally. Convera is an international payment platform that handles high volumes without sacrificing speed or accuracy. |
Choosing an international payment provider for small business: Key steps to take
When choosing a global payment partner, small business owners should do their due diligence to ensure they don’t overlook any critical details. This can be challenging, though, for SMBs that are expanding globally for the first time, with many “unknown unknowns.”
To understand what you’re getting into, apply the following measures:
- Obtain sample quotes from your likely payment corridors, including all the countries and currencies you expect to need.
- Request a demonstration of the payments platform and test payments in different corridors to see how long they take to settle.
- Since you may need customer service and local expertise to execute your expansion plans, make sure the payments provider you’re assessing has offices in the markets where you’re looking to expand.
- Map your international payment needs, including volumes and frequencies, to understand how speedy transactions relate to your timing constraints.
- Run a pilot test with small payments in key jurisdictions to track speed, fees, and the overall user experience.
Once you have an understanding of the cross-border payments landscape for SMBs, you’ll be able to gauge the best international payments provider to meet your needs and advance your business objectives.
However, before you settle on a decision, there are two final aspects to consider: certainty and predictability. These can be more important than costs, depending on your company’s risk tolerance or reputational standing.
Contact Convera to see how easy cross-border payments can be for a growing small business.
